My dining room

Jul 27, 2010

This has been one of my favorite transformations, and the vision I had in my head when we moved in is NOTHING like the (almost) finished room. Here is what it looked like pre-move in:

When I started decorating, we had 0 (read that as zero) furniture. So we were starting from scratch. I thought what I'd like was a BIG framed cork board filled with all the guests and fun times to come in this dining room....hm. It didn't have quite the look I was going for. (this picture below is from our last wine tasting party, but you can see the 'before')

And then I found a hutch at one of my favorite places....yep, you guessed it- Aunt Bee's! I think finding this piece really helped form the room.

We switched out the chandelier that came with the house- it was much too small for the space, and wasn't fitting the look of the room. Here's the new chandelier:

We added the ceiling medallion as well.

Here's the 'after' picture! It's still not finished, but it's pretty much there. I plan on making a fun and nearly free project with my hanging birdcage in the corner there.....

The curtains have some great tie backs- I love ball fringe!! I found this trim on Etsy, and thought they'd add some life, fun, and color to the silk curtains. I don't take decorating too seriously! :) I have ball fringe scattered throughout our house. It's my signature. To me, it says vintage, fun, playful.

The details / accessories get changed around periodically, but here's the rest of the room:

I found this statue at a local antiques store years ago for $18!! I know!!

It's also very similar to a statue we had next to our guest book at our wedding.

It's one of my favorite pieces.

the top of the hutch. The picnic basket was a wedding gift; the globe has the punch of turquoise I love and is representative of our hopes of traveling the globe soon; and the wine corks are from various get togethers in our home.

Blue hydrangeas from our yard. The candle vases were formerly on our wall sconces (see picture #2). I filled them with some sand and seashells. The green plates on the wall are from Z Gallerie.

These little vintage salt and pepper shakers are one of my favorite things in this room. They were a gift from my grandmother and her second husband. It makes me smile every time I see them.

The vintage rose picture is from another favorite local shop- Serendipity. My mom found this old creamer and gave it to me for Christmas one year. It has an inscription on it that reads Edelweiss Cafe. Love it!

Thanks for touring my dining room!

This room started out with absolutely nothing when we moved in, in 2008. Some of the items were splurges- the chandlelier, and the dining set- but everything else was found at sales, was handmade, moved from other rooms around the house or items collected /saved/ cherished over the years.

My next plans for this room are an area rug (see My Wishlist at top of the blog- Dash & Albert- Framboise Stripe), hopefully some cream slipcovers for the end chairs at the dining table, and some comfy chair pads for the wood chairs. I keep looking, but so far haven't found the right ones!

Have fun with your decor- make it personal, and something that brings a smile to your face everyday.